Threats to communion and agency mediate associations between stressor type and daily coping

Background and Objectives: Basic human values have been categorized into two dimensions: those that are self or agentically focused, and those that are other or communally focused. We apply this model to cognitive appraisals of stress and argue that threat appraisals also fall into these two dimensions. The mediating roles of communal and agentic threats in linking stressors with coping responses were examined. Design: A daily process methodology was used. Methods: Three-hundred and fifty undergraduate students were followed midday and evening over one week, completing structured electronic diaries regarding their experiences of the past half-day. Participants described stressors in open-ended format, which were then coded into social stress, achievement stress, and other stress categories. They also completed scales measuring stress appraisals and coping. Results: Communal threat mediated links between social stressors and empathic responding, support seeking, and confrontation. Agentic threat mediated links between achievement stressors and empathic responding, support seeking, confrontation, and problem solving. Conclusions: Individuals tend to cope in ways that maintain communion when they perceive communion to be threatened; they tend to cope in ways that maintain agency when they perceive agency to be threatened.     

When does random responding distort self-report personality assessment? An example with the NEO PI-R

Recent meta-analyses suggest that, notwithstanding almost 100 years of study, concerns about the impact of response biases on the validity of self-report personality scales remain to be justified. This study addresses the topic by demonstrating that random responding is indeed an issue for self-report personality scales, and that limitations associated with base rates exist that affect the ability of moderated multiple regression to evaluate fully the effects of a response bias. Overall, it is suggested that dismissing response biases as a concern for self-report personality assessment is premature when based only on a lack of significant regression moderator effects.     

Narcissism and punitiveness in a non-ego-threatening condition

Punitiveness of overt and covert narcissists was examined in a non-ego-threatening condition. In judging fictitious criminal cases, high scorers in overt narcissism were as punitive as low scorers; this result was independent of crime severity. For covert narcissism, however, high scorers were more punitive toward a serious crime and more lenient toward a mild crime, when compared to low scorers. This study provides pioneering data on narcissists’ punitive judgments in the absence of ego threat, which has been overlooked by previous research. The findings not only support the theoretical distinction between the overt and covert subtypes of narcissism, but also help clarify the meaning of punishment to narcissists.     

Social Skills Training in Two Subtypes of Psychiatric Inpatients with Generalized Social Phobia

The aim of this study was to investigate the differential effectiveness of broad-spectrum group social skills training (SST) in two subtypes of psychiatric inpatients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of generalized social phobia (GSP). SST participants were assigned to two GSP subtypes on the basis of their level of performance in social situations, i.e., a “reticent” subtype ( n = 28) and a “non-reticent” subtype (n = 28). As hypothesized, it was revealed that the benefit of SST did not differ in the two subtypes. These findings support the effectiveness and feasibility of comprehensive SST for patients with two subtypes of generalized social phobia.     

自定步调学习时间的习惯性反应：来自眼动的证据

习惯性反应指学习者根据自身阅读习惯来进行学习时间分配,它通常由词对位置这一外部线索激发。研究运用眼动记录技术,采用Metcalfe范式探讨词对位置和难度对学习时间分配的影响,以检验自定步调学习时间的习惯性反应。结果发现：（1）在自定步调总学习时间上,学习者倾向于对难度越大的项目分配越多的学习时间;（2）在前期自定步调学习进程上,当词对位置为易-中-难条件时,学习者倾向于优先在容易项目上分配较多的学习时间,接着是中等难度项目,最后是困难项目;当词对位置为难-中-易条件时,结果相反。这说明学习者的自定步调总学习时间受项目难度驱动,而前期自定步调学习时间受习惯性反应影响。     

The money attitude of covert and overt narcissists

The money attitude of covert and overt narcissists was studied. Both covert and overt narcissism predicted the power-prestige dimension of money attitude, which were both mediated by the need for social power. Interestingly, the relationship for covert narcissism was also mediated by the fear of negative social evaluation, confirming its socially vulnerable and hypersensitive features. In addition, the anxiety and distrust factors of money attitude were correlated with covert narcissism only. Anxiety was explained by the need for power and avoidance motivation, but no significant mediator was found for distrust. These findings provide evidence to the similarities and differences between the two types of narcissism. They also shed light on narcissists’ money-related behaviors, such as investment strategy and consumer behaviors.     

Increasing the vocal responses of children with autism and developmental disabilities using manual sign mand training and prompt delay

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of manual sign mand training combined with prompt delay and vocal prompting on the production of vocal responses in nonvocal children with developmental disabilities. A multiple baseline design across participants verified the effectiveness of this intervention. All participants showed increases in vocal responses following the implementation of the independent variables.     

The gap between inattentional blindness and attentional misdirection

Kuhn and colleagues described a novel attentional misdirection approach (deliberate diversion of attention away from a visually salient stimulus) to investigate overt and covert attention mechanisms in connection with inattentional blindness (not being able to perceive something that is plainly visible because one’s attention has not been focused on it). This misdirection paradigm is valuable to study the temporal relationship between eye movements and visual awareness. Although, as put forth in this comment, the link between attentional misdirection and inattentional blindness needs to be developed further. There are at least four differences between the two paradigms which concern the conceptual aspects of the unexpected object and the methodological aspects of the task design. This highlights the need for a broader theoretical framework incorporating inattentional blindness and overt and covert attention mechanisms. Two possible research lines focusing on the orienting attention research and the “selection-for-action” paradigm are discussed.